knittel



P. S. KNITTEL,

FEEDER FOR CRUSHERS AND PULVERIZERSF APPLICATION FILED JAN-2.1918. 1,31,39, Patented Oct. 1 1, 1919.

2 SHEETS-SHEET I.

THE COLUMBIA PLANOGRAPH 110.. WASHINGTON. D. c.

P. S. KNITTEL.

FEEDER FOR CRUSHERS AND PULVERIZERS.

APPLICATION FILED JAN. 2 1918.

1,318,389. Patented 0ct.14,1919.

2 SHEETS-SHEET 2.

r E ii 1C= I n -H\u\:'. 1-: mun-11 60., WASHINGTON. a c.

FEED %TATE PATENT @FFTQE.

PAUL S. KNITTEL, OF ST. LOUIS, MISSOURI, ASSIGNOR TO AMERICAN PULVERIZER COMPANY, OF 'ST. LOUIS, MISSOURI, A CORPORATION OF MISSOURI.

FEEDER FOR CRUSI-IERS AND PULVERIZERS.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Oct. 14, 1919.

Application filed January 2, 1918. Serial No. 210,034.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, PAUL S. KNITTEL, residing in the city of St. Louis and State of Missouri, have invented a certain new and useful Improvement in Feeders for Crush ers and Pulverizers, of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates to crushers and pulverizers or machines for reducing rock, coal, shale, clay, and other material, and it has more particularly to do with a device for feeding the material to be reduced in the machine.

The invention has for its objects to produce a simple and eflicient, power-driven feeding device or mechanism, which is positive in its action and yet possesses a certain degree of flexibility to avoid jamming and consequent damage which might possibly otherwise occur; and to attain certain other advantages which will hereinafter more fully appear.

The invention consists in the parts and in the combinations and arrangements of parts hereinafter described and claimed.

In the accompanying drawings which illustrate a practical embodiment of the invention,

Figure 1 is a side elevation of a crushing and pulverizing machine with the feeding device applied, aportion of the casing of the machine being broken away to disclose the interior arrangement;

Fig. 2 is a vertical section of the feeding device;

Fig. 3 is a rear elevation of the feeding device; and

Fig. 1 is a longitudinal vertical section of the feeding plunger or piston detached.

Referring now to the drawings, the numeral 1 designates an ordinary crushing and pulverizing machine comprising an inclosing shell or casing in which is a centrifugal reducing element that cooperates with annularly arranged breaking, grinding and sifting surfaces in the casing. As shown, the machine is provided with a receiving hopper2 through which the material is delivered to an initial breaker plate 3, where the material is acted upon by the peripherally disposed heaters, in this instance rings 4:, mounted loosely on the rotatory carrier or cage 5 comprising the centrifugal reducing element. The centrifugal element is secured on the power shaft 6 which extends horizontally through the casing and is provided with the usual driving pulley 6*. The particular construction and arrangement of the machine, of itself, however, forms no part of, or does not enter into, the present invention, except in the combinations in which it is set forth in the appended claims.

As hereinbefore pointed out, the present invention concerns more particularly a novel feeding device to be used in conjunction with machines of the character above described. As shown, the feeding device comprises a hopper 7 having arelatively long,

inclined bottom wall 8 at the rear and a shorter inclined wall 9 at the front. The side walls may be vertical or inclined, as desired.

Iii the front inclined wall 9 is an opening 10 communicating with a spout or trough 11 whose bottom 12 is preferably inclined slightly, as shown. This spout is projected into the receiving hopper of the crushing and pulverizing machine through an opening 13 therein.

On the front wall of the hopper 7 of the feeding device is a ledge 14 which, as shown, is an angle member arranged to rest on the marginal portion of the receiving hopper of the machine so as to be secured thereto by bolts 15 or other suitable fastening means. The hopper 7 is supported at the rear 'by a frame comprising upright angle bars 16 which are connected at their lower ends by a cross bar 17 that rests on a ledge 18 of the crushing and pulverizing machine and is secured thereto by bolts 19 or other suitable fastening means. The uprights 16 are further cross-connected by an angle bar 20 above the bottom bar 17. The structure is further stiffened'by triangular stay-plates 21 which are riveted near their vertical edge portions to said uprights 16 and their other edge portions respectively to angle bars 22 and 23, the bar 22 being secured to the inclined wall 8 of the hopper 7 and the bar 23 to the cross bar 20.

The stay-plates 21 afford a support for a reciprocatory plunger or feeding piston 2a which is disposed horizontally between the said plates and has its inner end beveled to correspond to the inclination of the wall 8 of the hopper 7; This end portion of the plunger works through an opening 25 in said wall 8 directly behind the hereinbefore mentioned opening 10 in the wall 9.

As shown, the plunger 24 is a built-up structure comprising a pair of parallel channel members with their webs disposed vertically and their flanges outwardly, as best shown in Figs. 2 and 3. Secured to and con necting the forward upper portions of the channel members is a top-plate 26, while another plate 27 covers the end of the plunger and has its marginal portions turned back to cover the opposite sides of the plunger for a short distance (see Fig. 2).

On the top of the plunger, and extending from the plate 26 to the outer end, is a block 28 of halfround section, while on the under side of the plunger are shorter blocks 29 of a like kind.

The forward portion of the plunger rests on a cylindrical flanged roller 30 which is mounted on a shaft 31 whose end portions .are journaled in bearings 32 provided therefor on the stay-plates 21. Toward the rear the plunger rests with its block 29 on a con caved roller 33 whose contour corresponds to the curvature of the block. This roller 33is mounted on a shaft 34 having bearings 35 on the stayplates21'similar to the shaft 31, The upper block 28 travels under a pair of concaved rollers 36, 37 similar to the roller 33, and having their respective shafts 38, 39, journaled in bearings 40, 41, which are provided 'on supplemental plates 42 that are secured on the outer faces. of said stay plates 21. 7

Secured to the channel members, as best shown in Fig. 4, are two oppositely disposed abutment members 43, 44. As shown, these members are flanged plates, the flanges thereof being riveted to the inner faces of the vertically disposed webs of the channel members. Working between these abutments 43, 44, is a cam disk 45. This cam' disk is fastened tight on a shaft 46 which extends through horizontally elongated slots 47 in the webs of the channel members and is journaled in bearings 48 provided therefor on thestay-plates 21. On one end of this shaft 46 isa spur gear 49 which is in mesh with a pinion 50 on the end of a driving shaft 51, said driving shaft 51 being journaled in bearings 52 provided on the supplemental plates 42, and having on its opposite end a tight and a loose pulley, re-. spectively, 53 and 54.

In the operation of the device, the material to be fed to the crushing andpulverim ing machine is placed in the hopper 7 and the plunger or feeding piston 24 is kept in constant reciprocatory movement by the actuation of the cam disk 45 and its action upon the abutments 43, 44, the shaft of the cam disk being rotated through the medium of the gear 49, pinion 50, driving shaft 51 and the tight pulley 53, which latter is belted to any suitable source of power.

In practice, the'opening 25 in the wall 8 of the hopper 7 is made large enough to provide a little clearance between the edges thereof and the end portion of the plunger which works therethrough, on all sides; and there is considerable looseness'between the supporting'rollers 30, 33, 36 and 37, and the plunger, as well as between the sides 'of the cam disk 45 and the webs of the channel members of the plunger. The blocks 28 and 29 are also slotted, as at 55 and 56, to make clearance for the cam disk 45. In this way, the plunger is permitted a slight oscillatory lateral as well as limited rotatory movement, so that, while the endwise'reciprocation i positive, a certain amount of flexibility in the directions just above noted affords a shaking action which tends to displace the material in the hopper 7 more readily and prevents jamming and incidental damage which might otherwise occur to the mechanism. The preponderance of weight of the plunger is toward the rear end thereof, due to the arrangement of the blocks 28 and 29 .thereon. This weight, shifting as it does, during the endwise reciprocation of the plunger on the supporting roller 33, tends to rock the plunger up and down, and while the motion is limited it has its effect in facilitating the displacement of the material with which the plunger engages in the hopper.

By the use of the devlce, a predetermined amount of material may be fed steadily to the crushing and pulverizing machine. It'

is within the contemplation of the invention to vary the movement of the plunger by changing. the throw of the cam disk or substituting interchangeable disks of different sizes. Also, the size of the opening 10 in the wall 9, which communicates with the.

spout 11, may be varied to control the feed. As shown, this may be accomplishedby mounting a plate 57 on the wall 9 and slotting. it to receive a securing bolt or bolts 58, so that said plate may be moved to partially cover the opening to the desired extent, it being only necessary to loosen the nut 59 on the bolt to effect the adjustment and tighten the same after adjustment is effected.

Obviously, the structure admits of con. vsideralole modification without departing from the spirit of the invention as defined I by the appended claims, and it is, therefore,

not limited to that shown in the drawings;

movement both longitudinally and transversely, and means for effecting the positive endWise reciprocation of the plunger, but permitting the rocking movement thereof afforded by said rollers.

2. In a device of the character described, a hopper having an outlet opening at the bottom thereof, a substantially horizontally disposed plunger operating With its end portion loosely in said hopper in abutting relation to said outlet opening, means for supporting said plunger loosely With its preponderance of eight outside the hopper,

and affording longitudinal and transverse rocking movement thereof, and means for effecting the positive endWise reciprocation of said plunger, but permitting limited rock-, ing movement thereof as afforded by said supporting means.

3. In a device of the character described, a hopper, a plunger operating With its for- Ward end portion loosely in said hopper in correlation to the outlet opening thereof, a roller loosely supporting said end portion of the plunger, the Weightier portion of said plunger being toward the rear end thereof and being of substantially cylindrical curvature at top and bottom, imilarly curved concaved rollers loosely supporting said outer portion of the plunger at top and bottom, and means for effecting the positive endwise reciprocation of the plunger, but permitting limited longitudinal and transverse rocking movement thereof as afforded by said concave rollers.

Signed at St. Louis, Missouri, December,

PAUL S. KNITTEL.

Copies of this patent may be obtained for five cents each, by addressing the Commissioner of Patents Washington, I). G. 

